Hmm. When I write this review, I am wondering what to write about, because in the end, it boils down to what is your position.

The writing was well. I feel you should add footnotes whenever you include statistics so readers can check their validity. But that's a minor thing.

Uhh. Onto the "mess" now.

When I think of a war, and when most people do(subconsciously most of the time). Its not the war that's important, but what's going to happen AFTER the war. Needless to say, there are always winners and losers. The losers lose, and slowly grow back, relying on innovation to grow, and the winners eventually get more and more reliant on the losers. I'm rambling a bit too much.

Anywho, I feel the important thing about to say about the "war", is the fact that people just don't have a freaking good plan, because if what you say is true, then either way the people of Iraq are getting the Joan Collins special.

Goto war and get "control", and their traditions are destroyed, replaced with American ideals and freedom from Barbarianism(like with what happened in Afghanistan, and in the Indian reformation schools). Since that's the only freedom the Iraq people have really had, I think that's what they would want to keep to.

Don't goto war, well, that's where its murky. People can generally get accustomed to environments over time(Being "institutionalized" as Morgan Freemond calls it in Shawshank Redemption), and for the newer generation of Iraq people(sorry, i'm not sure how to spell Iraqy(?)), that's all they've known.

Will war be better or worst for them is the key.

In the end though, and the reason I stay distant from most events, is the fact that you realize that more than likely war with Iraq will occour. What will come from it, I don't know.

Will the people better, I don't know.

I guess we all have are standing with are thumbs stuck up are asses(some nimble people can hold signs at the same time ;p)

Thank you for putting this up because everything you said needs to be out there for people to see. I completely agree with everything you wrote and it's just further reassurance that there are people out there that do care about humanity. So once again, thank you for writing this.

We can't just sit back and wait for them to start killing, we've already waited too long to stop the evil doings in Iraq. Waiting much longer, and they might just start killing millions of people at a time. If we have to kill a small amount of people, it's better than having them attack more than ten times the amount of people in Iraq. We have to do something fast though, and war is all that would work fast enough.

that is a wonderfully written essay.i am so ambivlent on this issue it drives me crazy. on the one hand the idea of war is utterly abhorrent to me, but on the other so is the notion that the world sits back and does nothing about fascism, murder and the denial of basic human rights just because it isnt happening to us. The arguments that saddam is a threat militarily, has links to al quaeda or is being 'obstructive' to the inspectors is all clearly pretext and i deplore it. however i am with the 'handwringers' in that it pains me to be in a society which could permit (and has permitted for decades) a brutal and utterly inhumane regime to flourish. this essay made me think a great deal about the issues, but alas brought me no closer to deciding my ultimate view. thanks for the pov though!

An excellent topic! I wrote one at school, but my teacher has persuaded me to change topics. I don't think she wants me to say it publically.